Ongoing bombings in Yemen: Mapping European arms exports

Launch of interactive cartographic platform

22.06.2021

To illustrate how European arms industries and governments continue to profit from the war in Yemen by exporting weapons to Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Forensic Architecture in cooperation with the European Center for Constitutional Rights (ECCHR), Yemeni Archive and Bellingcat developed the interactive cartographic platform European arms in the bombing of Yemen
 
Applying graphic and cartographic techniques to information obtained from extensive field research, open-source investigation, and legal analysis, the platform illustrates the impact of European arms exports in the continuous targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage sites. It does so by exposing the relationships between documented airstrikes, found remnants of European weapons, and a timeline of arms exports from European countries to the coalition. The platform shows that these exports continued despite overwhelming and regular evidence of atrocities in Yemen linked to European arms. 

In December 2019, ECCHR, Mwatana for Human Rights and their European partner organizations called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the criminal responsibilities of corporate and government executives of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The organizations argue that by issuing export authorizations and exporting arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, these European actors may be contributing to serious violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen, including war crimes.

“The ongoing war in Yemen caused the killing and wounding of thousands of civilians. International and domestic prosecution authorities who are investigating the criminal responsibilities of corporate and government European actors fueling the crimes in Yemen can use the platform as a tool of support,” explains Canelle Lavite, ECCHR. “However, the platform can be used by everyone who is interested in learning more about the role of European actors in the war.”

“Our platform shows that European arms companies and European countries are instrumental in the ability of the coalition to continue its assault on Yemen’s civilians. The platform also demonstrates how their continued trade of weapons, despite overwhelming documentation of violations, makes European companies and countries inexcusably complicit in potential war crimes,” says Omar Ferwati, Forensic Architecture.

Cases (1)

Who we are

To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck and other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means.

Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.

Press Contact

Maria Bause
T: +49 30 69819797
M: presse@ecchr.eu

Philipp Jedamzik
T: +49 30 29680591
M: presse@ecchr.eu

REGISTRATION PRESS

Press

Archive